The prophecy has been fulfilled people; the second coming is upon us. Yet before you go burning your good books, I’m not preaching about the big man upstairs’ offspring, I’m talking about the latest instalment of London-bred beatsmith Mr Boss’ “The Landing” franchise. Boasting a whole heap of gifted verbalists, “Part II” is 17 tracks of dope beats and undeviating lyricism.
DJ Sugai’s savage cuts tear apart the soft, floating strings of the intro before Eat Good supremo Sonnyjim jumps on his machismo flex and stakes claim of how easy music comes to him on the laid back, head-nodder, “Lemon Squeezy”. Mellowness continues as the soft guitars and percussion of “Underrated” compliment Freedom’s delivery before he later combines with his Nah Mean collective on the even smoother conversational, “Cinnamon”.
It’s not all about kicking back though. The kings of Rowdy, Ramson Badbonez and Dirty Dike, up the ante on “Hold On” and “Rant” respectively. The blend of rolling pianos, bass and heavy drum loops offer very little respite from Badbonez’ vicious flow and the woozy horns offer a simple canvas for Dike to humorously vent to his usual, eloquent standard.
Brighton trio Concept Of Thought absolutely desecrate Boss’ Spanish guitars on “La Moviemiento” before heads like Dr Syntax, Stig Of The Dump, Ronnie Bosh, Mr Key and Jakaboski all relish their opportunity to bless the dope instrumentations.
Sandwiched between the host of vocalists are a few select interludes that shine the spotlight solely on Mr Boss’ creativity behind the boards. These alone showcase how gifted a producer this dude is and are easily as listenable as any of the vocalled tracks.
It’s hard to pick a firm favourite amongst such an impressive roster but the lead single “Realisation” edges it for me. The wailing yet hypnotic saxophone spawns the perfect backdrop for the tag-team champions of deep, reflective, thought-provoking imagery; messrs Fliptrix and Verb T. The High Focus combination’s silky flows merge together to create one of the finest ‘zone out’ tracks I’ve heard in a long time.
Mr Boss seems to have struck up a winning formula with “The Landing Part II”. By picking a mix of emerging talent and more-established artists, he’s managed to form something that oozes experience whilst maintaining a fresh edge. It’s clear that with only his second full length release, the 20-year old (if my maths is right) producer has a very, very promising career ahead of him. This is more than likely the fledgling stages of someone destined for greatness so needless to say it’s a valuable addition to you speakers…
Download “The Landing Part II” HERE.
Review by Mike Pattemore @beats_n_pieces
